Lapidaryforum.net
Gadgets, Gizmos, and Dohickeys => Cutting, Grinding, Polishing => Topic started by: brentnewton on February 20, 2019, 09:49:49 AM
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If you read my intro ... I self-confessed I asked a lot of questions :). I have not cut a lot in the last couple of years. I taught a young man to cut and ended up giving him the saws and some other stuff ... and am just now trying to get back into the groove and cut some of this hoard before I get too old to enjoy it. I still have my 4" Raytech trim saw, and as I indicated in other posts ordered the 14" slab saw (if it ever gets here). I agonized over the 14" saw because most of the stuff I cut is smaller ... smaller than fist sized. I just knew in my gut I'd oder a 10" slab saw ... and end up with a rock too big to cut. I am hoping I can still get the smaller stuff in the 14" vise, or use a rock/slab grabber to hold it in the vise. Does that would reasonable? I bought a el-cheapo tile saw with a 7 1/2 inch blade because sometimes slabs are too long to fit on the trim saw bed and I was going to use it to cut them down to make it easier to get them on the trim saw. Anyone have a rig for a tile saw that would let one hand feed small rocks? Problem with the tile saw is ... it has a kerf about a foot wide .. or so it seems that way. Should I just suck it up and buy a 10" saw too ... I really don't want to start collecting saws again ... but you know how that goes ... never too many rocks, and never too much equipment.
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I cut small rock in my 18” saw. A will glue them to a 2x4 if they have a flat spot or make a few cuts than glue them.
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A ten inch tile saw takes regular 8 and 10 inch lapidary blades.
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Make yourself a fence out of piece of angle iron clamped parallel to the blade.
Glue your rocks to 2x2 or 2x4 blocks and slide the blocks on the saw table or clamp them in the big vice. I saw a lot of small rocks on my 12" and my 14" saws. Cut a slice off of the right beach cobble and you have an instant cab. Regular wood glue works well for gluing stones onto wood stubs. Use foaming gorilla glue if the rock is irregular and has not good flat surface. Kerf width is most important if you have intricate patterns or valuable rocks. If the rocks are self collected or affordable ignore the fact that you may be generating more rock dust than necessary if you had a more expensive and or fragile blade.
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jhonP ... thanks. What do you use to glue them ... I've had them fly off the stick using epoxy ... but I was trying to glue to a non-flat surface.
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lithicbeads .... good to know! I may have an blade lying about somewhere.
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Thanks peruano .... angle iron brace is a good idea! I may see if I can rig up some sort of hand feed to use with the tile saw as well.
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Gorilla glue
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The angle-iron fences do work. A piece of slotted 16 gage angle and two tapped bolt holes in my old 10" saw table is my adjustable fence setup. Drilled two pairs of holes in the angle and sawed between them to make the slots. Has been well worth the time it took to do it.